At TaxConnex, we've been following the saga of Amazon and Georgia sales tax collection with special interest. We expected some "quid pro quo" where Amazon would agree to begin collection in exchange for an incentive of some sort. But, that doesn't seem to be the case. Certainly there's an interesting story that's not being reported.
Following is the story that IS being reported from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Amazon.com will start collecting sales tax in Georgia beginning Sept. 1, the online retailer confirmed Friday exclusively to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
In other states, Amazon paired its plans to begin collecting sales tax with huge job announcements, but a spokesman for the company told the AJC there are no plans to build a warehouse or other operations in the state.
Retailers operating brick-and-mortar stores welcomed the news as helping to level the playing field with online competitors.
“It makes a difference to those brick and mortar folks who lost business,” said Rick McAllister, president of the Georgia Retail Association. “I’m certainly delighted.”
Georgia passed a law last year that went into effect in January and was intended to collect taxes from Amazon and other online retailers. Online sellers that did not charge sales tax to shoppers claimed they did not have to because they did not have offices or employees in the state.
The law, which expanded the definition of a physical presence in the state, was expected to add an additional $16 million annually to the state’s coffers. The bulk of that would have come from Amazon’s sales, but the company has not yet collected the tax. That will change next month.
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